Under the Skin
by etErnalroSe09
Summary: In this story, Innocence is not the weapon. Exorcists are instead. When bonded, a piece of Innocence and its wielder's soul is exchanged and slowly, the Innocence starts taking over its host's body and memories. This story is about a girl who kept her soul, a boy existing for the world's sake, two lovers destined and a tool Told in POVs
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I am so so so late and I apologise and I AM sorry but school was a bitch and I

LOST MY FRIGGIN THUMBDRIVE

Ugh. Is almost every writer cursed to lose her/his thumbdrive?! Seriously, it's the most cliché screw-up for a(n online) writer. EVER.

Anyway, I have a new plot and all and I know the first chapter is short, but I'm working on it. I will be working on new chapters for Grey(it was lost with my Goddess-forsaken thumbdrive) and Complicated Triangles and I made an improved first and long chapter for DGH. Huzzah.

Anyway, enjoy.

This is dedicated to a Llama (you know who you are) if you review and favourite everything because you cried when you proof-read it.

* * *

Chapter one: The Start of it All

**Lenalee**

I can't sleep, so I curl into a ball, as small as the brown straps _They_ tie to my wrists allows me, and cry instead. I am so, so tired but I daren't close my eyes. Because then I will see the hot bursts of yellow and red as the fire eats the house and the terrible burning smell. I will see the pile of red cheongsam, embroidered all over with hummingbirds, and the scattered lump of ashes that used to be my mother filling up the red silk. My brother screamed my name over and over again and I knew my father was dead. I still remember. "Lenalee! Lenalee!" Here, they call me Subject 24.

**Red**

I sit in the dusty corner of the orphanage, getting cobwebs in my hair and dirt on my fingers as I doodle in the blackish grey dust. I use my right hand, pale as the white ceiling and murky as the dirt smudged walls, spotted over with bruises. My left hand I hide under the long sleeve of the rag of my shirt and oven mitts with coloured boxes, like a rainbow. The rest of the children are playing outside in the grass. I hide inside so they don't push me to the floor and hit 'till blood runs again. Demon child! They scream. Devil! The nuns call me "Red". It is the colour of my stiff, wrinkled left hand. I carefully draw swirls and squares with dots in the dusty floor.

**Kanda**

I can barely remember anything anymore. Just that pretty woman and flowers so pink and pale. Lotus flowers. That's what they were. I can see them now, filling up my world, sprouting from the ceiling, the walls, the tables, everywhere. I tell them but they don't believe me.

Who am I? I can't remember. I must have forgotten again.

"Kanda Yu-"

What are you talking about? I am not Kanda. Mugen. I am Mugen, a blade in my own hands, pulsating with a glow, so bright, so-

"Kanda! You can stop the synchronization now!"

–What? No. No, I am powerful, I am two, I am weapon, I am wielder and I am _hungry. _

'_Slash_'

'_Scream_'

'_Thunk_'

They're not moving anymore, or making any noise. Red, it's red everywhere. How did it get on my hand? I told you, I wasn't going to do what you want and I'm hungry and now you're dead.

Hungry…..

So hungry…..

Lost.

So confused

Blood. There's blood in my mouth. Death, too. And screaming, all around, in the room, in my ears, into my head, my brain.

Huh? What's that? I can't move anymore, my body and me, the blade, fall to the floor. Everything is dark.

Why is it so cold?

**F**

The alley kids name each other. I am Fire, they call me 'F' for short. We alley kids stick together, we help each other, feed each other and when the time comes, drag each other's corpses to the wild marshes we call the 'Dead Field'. We have only each other, after all. 'Us and Them' is the only rule of this grim world (which is the only one I have ever known)- _loyalty._ Grass is getting food today, but it is winter and it is cold and there isn't even a worm, be it dead or alive.

I flip around to face the wall, swallowing a mouth of snow that melts into water that my throat is screaming for, and run my fingers over the dirty bricks. I scratched 'Fire' there, each one of us marks our own corner, this one is mine. I use my arms as a bony pillow and huddle up as the cold wind blows, cutting into me like knives. I shiver.

* * *

**[and so the week passes by]**

* * *

**Red**

They say children are disappearing on the streets, the nuns do. How sad, they exclaim in front of us. Pray for them, they tell the others.

But it's all lies. I know they are glad. Good, they mutter, the little vermin are gone. Good riddance. The way they look at me, frosty-eyed and disgusted, I know they wish I'll disappear too.

At the table in the candlelight, an orange-haired boy- was his name Derek?- blows out the flames and sticks the knife into his cake. I clutch my stomach as thick slices of cake are handed out.

I don't have a birthday. Does that mean I don't exist?

**F**

I'm hungry. We're all hungry, and it's so cold. I hate winter. The snow, cold and wet, is bad enough and now we're getting Snatched. Grass was the first to go. When he didn't come back, we, Light, Fly and me, went to find him but we couldn't even find a single hazel hair off his head. He just disappeared, matches and all and now we have no fire. The next ones to go were Pink and Hippo from the next alley down the road, beside the fish shop. No one was that sad about it except Hippo's fellow alleyians, because now they have no one to beat other's up to steal their food.

I don't really care about the Snatching but now we have to pair up to get things to eat and I don't have a pair- not anymore- so I have to wait, hungry and cold.

I wish we had real fire.

**Lenalee**

23 died. I don't know his name, just hat he was a boy taller and older than me, with ginger hair and blue eyes so smart and so kind. He held my hand, dying on the table, as I stood beside him and waited my turn, trying not to cry, trying to be brave.

"Live," he'd said, and his voice was strong and proud though his words were muffled by the mask over his mouth. He gestured weakly but impatiently and I carefully slipped the clear plastic band of the mask over his head, pinkish with blood. "and remember." He turned his head to spit out a puddle of red onto the table.

"Don't forget us, the ones who die." He coughed up a storm, shudders wrecking his body, running up and down his spine.

"Remember."

It is his last word. His eyes were bright till the end. I squeezed his cold floppy hand, slippery from his blood, salty-smelling and crimson, before the grey-coated take him away.

I now lie where he died, eyes squeezed shut. In my chest, my heart goes_ thump-thump _The hard metal table is still warm with his fleeting heat_._

I will not be scared.

I hear a switch click.

I will not die. I will live, and with me, the memories of the children before me, all dead from this hell, will live with me.

They will not be forgotten.

Pain hits me like a tidal wave, with the pressure of a million bolting horses and their carriages. I hear myself scream obligingly. Then I am swimming, swimming in the darkness and there is a softly-glowing cube in my cupped hands. I touch it, and it pulses compellingly. I reach out and hug it closer to me, but it starts to glow suffocatingly so I let it go but it is too late and I am floating in the sticky green light, feeling like I am sinking in mud.

_I won't go! I won't die! I will not be forgotten! I __am_ _**alive**__!_

I surge out of the greenish wisps the muddy sludge the light has become and the feather-light ribbons wrap around my legs, encasing it till above my knees in a comforting but icy weight. I am left in the darkness but it greys rapidly and I blink my eyes open.

The bright ceiling lights spin so I close my eyes again. I'm so dizzy.

The scientists are shouting, "Subject 24 successful! Experiment Forced Synchronization successful!" And-

**Kanda **

Everything is black. I feel Kanda's presence, in the back of my mind, struggling to escape. I don't let him. It is similar to pilling imaginary weights on the heavily locked door I stuck him in.

This body is mine now.

A sound escapes my chapped lips. A laugh, I register. A corner of my mouth pulls up and I laugh again. My voice is hoarse and bounces off all surfaces of the blank, empty room as my tightly-bound body shudders with the rhythm of my escaping breath.

* * *

A/N:IM FINALLY DONEEEEEEEE

My Dad is physically trying to pull me off the computer now, so I can't edit. I'll just post this and please ignore any mistakes (or ask if you want to verify something).

I hope this makes up for my slacking….. although I guess it doesn't. Gomenasai.

I'll try and update as soon as I can, okay?

Sayonara minna-chan!

~eternalrose09


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Yo~ I'm back with the next chapter. Just don't expect me to upload this quickly in the future cause I kinda hit a writer's block.

Anyway, I hereby disclaim any ownership of DGM, be it manga or anime or abridged.

This fic is dedicated to Happycafegirl for being the first to favourite and of course, a llama(you noe who u are)

Enjoy and review

* * *

CHAPTER 02

**Red**

They don't want me anymore. The orphanage throws me out, like they throw the rubbish, but rubbish don't get kicked or beaten up.

Rubbish don't get called Demon Child.

I scramble to the end of the road and there, at the crossroads of three intersecting paths, I sit in the dirt and cry. My eyes eventually dry out but I remain where I am, staring at the deep orange sky as the sun sets, looking like a ball of fire sinking into the hills. The clouds are chasing the first stars across when the man appears. He is tall and grey, and dressed in a suit of black and his shoes go '_tap tap_'. He squats down and stares at me with liquid golden eyes. His cigarette smoke clouds up the air around us.

"Hey boy, what are you doing here?"

…

"Dying," I tell him honestly.

He throws his head back and laughs, wavy black bangs falling out from under his top hat.

"I need you to come with me…?" His voice is bored but it sounds like a question. He stands up and brushes imaginary dust from his pants.

No one has ever needed me before. I put my bare hand (the right one) in his white-gloved one and we walk.

The crickets start to chip merrily, in a fast and frightened sort of way.

**Lenalee**

When I wake up, my brother sits beside me.

"I'm here," he says softly, smiling cheerfully like he always has.

Is he real? He places his warm hand gently on my hair and memories are dredged up like a flooding dam.

"I'm home."

I take in the sight of him greedily- dark indigo hair sticks out from under his beret and he seems tired, with faint dark half-circles beneath his eyes but he is smiling with beautiful white teeth that shine and gleam. His dark eyes, the only thing similar to me, twinkle kindly at me from behind the shiny reflective glass of his spectacles and I know I fall asleep smiling, too.

**Kanda**

A scientist I do not recognise nor wish to know enters. With him is an old man. I regard them with a sneer on my face and bloodlust in my veins.

"Kanda, this is General Tiedoll. He will be your mentor."

The door swings shut and there are only two of us left. My eyes lock with his brown ones in a stare-down. He speaks first: "Hello, Yu-kun."

"Don't call me that," I warn, teeth bared in an odd sort of smile.

"Then, what should I call you?"

"Your death," I say coolly.

Tiedoll chuckles warmly. "You do look a handful." His smile is friendly and open.

My answering laugh is coarse and scathing. "You'll teach a monster?"

Tiedoll's eyes are sad. "Not a monster. A person. Just a child, misunderstood."

"You fool." I tell him conversationally. I don't smile, I glare, with eyes blacker than shadows, colder than ice. "I'm not even human." Then I jerk my head at him in consent. "I'll go with you, old man. Unseal me."

The crow comes and goes; the seals drop from my body. Tiedoll waits as I flex my fingers, cracking the joints, and shake out the kinks in my muscles. A vicious smirk stretches my lips and contorts my face into one of bloodlust. I can't wait to get ahold of my_ form_.

**F**

It all started with the scarf. Orange and vibrant against the white powdery banks of snow, it lay fluttering lightly in the breeze. I found it; it is mine. I took it. But no one jumped me with a sack or anything. I wound the knitted cotton piece around my neck, tight enough that it was suffocating, over my mouth so that whatever I say is muffled and I feel my own warm breath on my cheeks. I turned the corner and bumped into Trouble.

Literally.

Hippo's right-hand goon and several other pricks stare me down, knuckles cracking. I earned a split lip, bruises, a swelling eye from which pained tears rolled. But I kept the scarf. I can still emember the rush of triumph, bringing a smile to my face.

Not that anyone can see it in this dark. I must have passed out, and gotten Snatched like that. Damn me, I think bitterly, and crush the scarf in my cold palms, relishing the heat of the surrounding darkness.

**Red**

The tall smoking man walks me into the centre of a forest clearing. I look around in a blurry sort of daze. I'm so sleepy and my legs are wobbly like jelly and I'm hungry. Then, like magic, a door crowned with a three-tipped gold crown and gilded with purple mist rises seamlessly from the ground. I am excited and curious but that does not shake off my exhaustion. The man steps through the open doorway into inky blackness and I follow. The door swings shut and we are left in the dark. The man's golden eyes gleam. Our footsteps echo; the rhythm lulls my drooping eyelids close and I fall asleep. I am not afraid to fall into the shadows. The smoking man will catch me.

Later, though I do not know how much later, I wake up in a black room. The carpet is soft and fluffy, the lamps shine dimly and there are no curtains. There aren't any windows, after all. I sit on the edge of the huge bouncy bed and peer cautiously into each corner.

And I wonder where I am.

**F**

Everything is a blurry whir of muffled noise as I am hurried, stumbling, into somewhere. Finally, something is lifted from my head- probably a sack- and I regain my sight. Then I am shoved into a charcoal-coloured room. I blink rapidly as my eyes begin to adjust to the changes in brightness and stare around me. The first thing I notice is that everything in the room is black except for the dim lights.

The second is that there is someone else in the room.

It is a boy. He is pale, has brown hair, and only comes up to my chin. His clothes are tattered, full of dirt and dust, and purple bruises peek out of the tears, and there is an oven mitt on his left hand. Calm surprise fills his soulful grey eyes. I figure I must be pretty shocked too.

"Who are you?" He asks, voice quiet and curious.

**Red**

The door opens. A boy stumbles in. The door closes. The lock clicks. The boy looks at me. I look back at him. He I taller, tanner, and his clothes are dirty and torn like mine. "Who are you?" I ask.

**F**

I look at him for awhile, then tell him: "I'm Fire, 'F' for short. Who are **you**?" Then, without waiting for an answer, I run around the room, looking for an exit. The only one is the door they shoved me though. It is locked. I hit it with my palm and it connects with a thud, making my skin sting.

"What are you doing?"

I turn around. "Trying to get out."

"Why?"

"We've been Snatched, idiot. We have to escape," I scoff.

"Snatched?"

"Yeah-got me when I was unconscious." I scowl. "How did they get you? Offered you candy?" I mutter under my breath.

"I followed him here- the smoking man. The tall man, the one in the suit, and the top hat."

I stare. "You _**followed **_him here?"

He gazes back calmly. "Why not?"

I'm silent.

"Do you really want to leave?"

I think. I think about the streets, the cold, the hunger. I think of the dying, the hitting the hurting. I look around me. I've never slept in a bed before. I slouch to the soft black mattress and flop down on my back. The springs sink down.

"No," I answer. "Not really."

* * *

A/N: Here is the second chapter! I'm sorry it's later than promised but I was dragged to the aquarium and whatnot. Beautiful place. You should have seen the jelly fishes! They were really tiny and so damn kawaii!

Back to the important stuff. I want to thank MidoriHikari00 and English-illiterate for reviewing.

On the side note, Singapore is covered with horrible haze which was blown over from Indonesia 'cause of their burning of fires. Now, I'm not blaming anybody and to any Indonesian readers or writers out there, I'm VERY sorry if I had insulted you. I'm just disappointed that the government isn't doing anything. The PSI went up to 400 plus in the early afternoon-that's double the previous 'highest record' since 1997! Even Mc Donald has stopped its delivery service (TWSS :) [and the Indonesian government calls us children! (like, mosquitos!) ugh]

And if you read all that, thanks for bearing with my rants = _ =

Well, the next update should be up next week, if possible, but school is starting again soon, so it'll take awhile.

Bye

* * *

Edit: omg my computer died (literally, hanged, screen changed colours like it was on drugs) [okay, exaggeration] so I'm very very late. Sorry.


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